Today's battle report features my Khorne Chaos Daemons taking on Tom's Blood Angels army at our Into the Maelstrom 5 club tournament.
This tournament was billed as a friendlier style event, where less powerful lists were used and some of the more unusual missions would be in play. The tournament was using GW layout terrain and featured 16 players.
My army consisted of:
Belakor
Bloodthirster
6 units of Bloodletters
3 Bloodcrushers
3 Bloodcrushers
3 units of 5 Flesh hounds
Skull Cannon
Tom's army consisted of:
Sons of Sanguinius Detachment
Chaplain with Jump Pack
Commander Dante
Judicar
Lemartes
Sanguinor
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack
5 Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs
5 Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs
6 Blade Guard
10 Death Company with Jump Packs
10 Death Company with Jump Packs and Thunder Hammers
5 Infiltrators
10 Sanguinary Guard
The first mission was Sites of Power with Hammer and Anvil deployment. I spread my forces over my deployment zone, putting Belakor and the Bloodthirster towards the bottom of the deployment zone, supported by the rest of the daemons. I put three units of Bloodletters, one unit of Bloodcrushers and a unit of Flesh Hounds into deep strike reserve.
Tom hid most of his units behind the ruins in his deployment zone. Not sure why, as I had next to no firepower!
I won the roll off for first turn.
TURN 1
In my first turn, I drew Storm Hostile Objective and Bring It Down, neither of which were really scoreable!
I focused on the bottom two central objectives, moving a Skull Cannon onto the central one and a number of units onto the bottom one. I avoided moving a unit onto the top objective. Tom had most of his units castled up at the top of the board, so didn't want to give some free kills and extra movement on the bottom. The Skull Cannon fired at the Lieutenant who was exposed, taking 2 wounds from him.
I scored 3 points for holding my own objective and that was it. I got rid of both of my objective cards.
Tom drew Capture Enemy Outpost and investigate signals. The Death Company moved up on the top objective, while the Bladeguard and Judicar moved up towards the central objective. There was no shooting, and he scored 3 points for his objective. He discarded Capture Enemy Outpost.
VICTORY POINTS:
Daemons- 3
Blood Angels- 3
TURN 2
In my second turn, I got 12 on the primary. I drew Cleanse and Tempting Target, which Tom chose as the one the Death Company were holding.
In order to try and block as many corners for signals, I advanced the Flesh Hounds towards the bottom right, while a unit of Bloodletters advanced towards the bottom left corner. The Flesh Hounds and Bloodcrushers on the top of the map moved towards the Death Company, supported by Belakor. I left my forces on the bottom objective, forcing Tom to come to me if he wanted it.
I brought in two units of Bloodletters in the shadow region to go after the Death Company. Belakor fired at the Death Company, killing one. The Skull Cannon and Bloodletters cleansed the objective.
In the charge phase, the Bloodcrushers and two unit of Bloodletters assaulted the Death Company. Tom brought in the Sanguinor to target the Bloodcrushers and used the fight on death strat for them. The attacks managed to kill all the Death Company, leaving only the Chaplain. The attacks back were brutal, killing one squad of Bloodletters and 7 in the other squad. The Sanguinor failed to damage the Bloodcrushers.
At the end of the turn, I scored the 10 pts for the secondaries.
In his turn, Tom scored 3 on the primary, and drew Cleanse to go with Investigate Signals. The Bladeguard moved up on the central objective, while the Sanguinary Guard moved up to support them. The Death Company moved up on the top objective. The two Assault Intercessors came in on the two free corners to do Signals. I then used Rapid Ingress to bring in a unit of Bloodcrushers to threaten his home objective. The Bladeguard did Cleanse on the central objective.
In the charge phase, the Death Company charged the Bloodletters and Flesh Hounds, killing both. He scored 9 points on his secondary objectives.
VICTORY POINTS:
Daemons- 25
Blood Angels- 15
TURN 3
I scored 9 on the primary and drew Capture Enemy Outpost and Behind Enemy Lines.
The Bloodthirster moved up on the Sanguinary Guard, while the Bloodcrushers and Flesh Hounds moved up on the enemy outpost.
Belakor moved towards the centre. I brought in a unit of Flesh Hounds to take on the Assault Intercessors. The Bloodletters moved to threaten the Bladeguard Veterans. Shooting from Belakor and the Skull Cannon managed to kill one Sanguinary Guard.
In the charge phase, the Bloodthirster assaulted the Sanguinary Guard, while the Bloodletters and Flesh Hounds charged the Infiltrators on the Blood Angels' home objective. The Flesh hounds in my deployment zone charged the Assault Intercessors.
The Bloodthirster struck, but thanks to the -1 to hit and wound, only two wounds got through the save. Tom then made all his FNP rolls and not a single Guard fell! The Infiltrators were slain by the Khorne Daemons that charged them.
The Sanguinary Guard struck back, killing the Bloodthirster, who then exploded, killing a couple of the Guard. I scored both my secondary cards.
Tom scored 6 on the primary, as well as getting Behind Enemy Lines and Secure No Mans Land. I used Belakor's ability to force a battleshock test on the Bladeguard. They failed denying Tom another 6 points on the primary!
The Bladeguard moved up on the objective, while the Sanguinary Guard moved up to threaten the bottom objective. The Assault Intercessors moved up on their home objective.
Shooting did a few wounds to some of the demons. In the charge phase, the Sanguinary guard charged the two Bloodletter squads, while the Death Company charged the Bloodcrushers and the Assault Intercessors charged the Bloodcrushers and Flesh Hounds. The Bladeguard charged the Skull Cannon and Belakor.
The Death Company easily dispatched the Bloodcrushers. The Bladeguard damaged the Skull Cannon, but only managed a couple of wounds on Belakor. The Sanguinary Guard wiped out the two units of Bloodletters with ease, while the Assault Intercessors killed enough to take back the objective.
At the end of turn, I used the stratagem to put the Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters in my deployment zone into reserve.
VICTORY POINTS:
Daemons- 47
Blood Angels- 26
TURN 4
In my fourth turn, I scored 6 on the Primary. I drew Area Denial and Assassinate. The Bloodletters moved up to grab the bottom objective. I brought the Flesh Hounds up on the top objective using the 3" deep strike stratagem and brought a unit of Bloodletters up to deal with the Bladeguard.
I charged the Bladeguard with the Bloodletters. They struck and killed the Bladeguard, taking the Judicar down to 2 wounds, but leaving him on the objective.
I failed to score any secondaries and discarded both cards.
Tom scored 3 on the Primary, and drew Bring it Down and Assassinate, putting a big target on Belakor! The Judicar failed his Battleshock test once more, dying to the powers of the Daemons shadow of chaos ability.
The Sanguinary Guard moved up on Belakor, while the Death Company moved to deal with the Flesh Hounds. The Assault Intercessors threw a grenade and fired their pistols at the Bloodcrushers, killing one.
In the charge phase, the Blood Angels launched their assault. The Sanguinary Guard butchered the Khorne forces in the centre, while the Death Company easily dispatched the Flesh Hounds. Tom scored 10 points on his secondaries.
VICTORY POINTS:
Daemons- 53
Blood Angels- 39
TURN 5
I managed to score 9 on the primary for holding 3 of the objectives with my meagre forces. I drew overwhelming force and secure no mans land.
I used the stratagem to sticky the middle objective (having already done my home objective earlier in the game). I charged the Sanguinary guard, hoping to tie them up and stopping them holding more objectives later in the game. I killed a couple with the Bloodletters, losing one entire squad and 5 in another squad for my troubles, but managed to score 5 secondary points.
In his final turn, Tom drew Area Denial and Teleport Homers. He was able to move onto the objectives and scored his two secondary cards and 15 on the primary, to bring it very close!
VICTORY POINTS:
Daemons- 76
Blood Angels- 72
An incredibly close game, but a win for the Khorne Daemons.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Tom for a fantastic game. It was incredibly close and I got very lucky in winning it. Failing his battleshock with the Bladeguard cost him the 6 VP that would have won him the game. In addition, he forgot that the Judicar had fight first, so most likely they would have slaughtered the Bloodletters that charged them on the centre objective. It was too late to change it, but most likely would have won him the game.
I think Tom could have been more aggressive in his deployment. As I had little to no shooting, there was no need to hide behind the large ruins, he could have spread across the deployment zone as I had and been able to threaten my units much faster than he was.
It might also have been useful to use the Assault Intercessors and Infiltrators to bait the central objectives to force me to go kill them, where he could counterattack with his faster moving forces.
Overall, a very close game where I got very lucky! The funniest part was when the Bloodthirster completely whiffed against the Sanguinary Guard and only ended up killing some thanks to his exploding. I should have put him after the Death Company. He most likely would have died (with the fight on death), but I reckon he could have taken out most of the squad first.
A great game in a mission that I don't play that often. It was a lot of fun.